The Backwards Step

I love tech, I love new things that make me work better, and improve my life.

Having a coffee machine in my office, having a weather station and things like this are a huge luxury, and one that I am grateful for, but can it get to much?

If you have followed my photography over the past few years, you will have seen a change in cameras so many times, that I have lost count. I have gone from, point and shoot, to 40mp Fuji's, to Sony A7's, to Olympus M3/4 cameras, and back again.

All through this I felt I was looking for something, looking for a camera that gave me what I used to have, but I didn't really know what that was.

I have always been one who goes on about older gear being just as good as newer gear, it is a great place to learn, it is also a cheaper option.

Looking back at some of my old images, I started to realise why I love photography and what it was that made me get up at stupid o'clock to get out in to the wilds before anyone else was contemplating opening their eyes.

Having a camera that you can just pick up and shoot is great, but it doesn't always result in the best way to take photographs. Having a camera that is serving a purpose feels more organic, feels like you are setting out to capture something, and makes you feel like you are doing photography.

Landscape photography is a genera all to itself. You are, like other photography generas, waiting for moments and good light, but landscape photography is built on waiting, hoping, and finding locations that work.

When i started doing landscape I slowed down, I was dedicated to waiting, checking, working the composition and looking at the options if the weather or location were not working in my favour. I had lost this, and it almost made me fall out of love with photography.

Last week I re-purchased one of the all time great cameras, a Nikon D810. It is a camera that I have used previously and loved it, I changed because it is a beast, it weighs the same as my previous kit, a Nikon Zfc and it's two lenses, but the reason why I loved it was because it made me slow down, sit, wait, move with the light, and not with my racing mind, and also taught me that you do not need the best autofocus, the best stabilisation, and the best in-built features.

When I went out with the lighter mirrorless cameras, I would just shoot images that I thought looked good and normally came back disappointed as only about one of those 500 shots would find it's way in to Lightroom.

The D810 is 12 years old and still knocks many modern cameras out of the park for it's quality. I managed to head out to the New Forest and get some great images and due to it being and camera that is built for a purpose the images I am shooting less yet the images are more thought out.

I have just spent three hours walking around the woodlands in the New Forest and the camera came out 3 times, each of those times I had a shot which I really liked, although they may not be my finest, they are shots that I have saved on to my cloud and will look back on.

I honestly think I have found the spark again, I find it very hard to slow down, but somehow taking a step backward has made me very happy.

I am excited to get out and plan trips again, I am excited to be thinking about doing photography like I used to, and I am once again feeling like I want to continue this amazing art form and use it to its full potential.

Take care,

Matt